Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda-setting in American and British Speculative Fiction

What role, if any, does narrative imagination play in the anticipation and actualization of America’s political future? Rumors of War and Infernal Machines explores how narrative speculations on emergent or imaginary military technologies may exert profound influence upon the political agendas and actions of modern superpower states. This phenomenon is analyzed primarily within the domain of post-World War II American speculative fiction (e.g. science fiction, technothrillers, apocalypse narratives) and policy however, to show that this particular to one nation and one epoch, the book also conducts a detailed assessment of comparable Victorian and Edwardian British literature. Ultimately, these two investigatory thrusts reveal profound cultural similarities and a marked transatlantic continuum close analysis of primary texts and supporting historical documents indicates that, along with global dominance, a discursive preoccupation with military innovation was transferred from Britain to the US in the decades following World War I. Rumors of War and Infernal Machines reveals a similar historical relationship between the increasing political influence of speculative military fiction and the parallel rise of superpower states and their technophilic ideologies. Throughout, new research and analyses are presented without recourse to jargon, inviting readers of varying backgrounds and interests to explore the intersections of future-looking fiction and contemporary political power.